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Saturday, 31 October 2015

With thanks to CAAMS Leasing & Dimonim Air, exclusive new pictures of DHC-6-300 MSN 620 PK-HVM at Karubaga, Indonesia. Karubaga is located in the Tolikara Regency of Indonesia's Papua province. We can also see now that the aircraft has been fully painted that it is named "Miracle".

Bald Mountain's N716JP departed the north slope yesterday returning to base in Homer, AK. The aircraft is seen below prior to departure, in the company of ConocoPhillips DHC-6-300 N842AR which has now returned to Deadhorse.

665 - DHC-6-300 9N-AFA Tara Air, Kathmandu

29/30-Oct-2015

Kathmandu, Nepal (VNKT/KTM) - Ahmedabad, India (VAAH/AMD)

31-Oct-2015

Ahmedabad, India (VAAH/AMD) - Al Ain, UAE (OMAL/AAN)

9N-AFA is seen below at Lukla, Nepal back in Apr-2007 - at that time it still carried Yeti Airlines titles (Air Tara's parent company).

Thursday, 29 October 2015

European Coastal Airlines has announced the launch of international services with effect from 13-Nov-2015.

Beginning on that date European Coastal will operate a new four times weekly service from Rijeka Airport, and the downtown Split seaplane base to Ancona, located on Italy's Adriatic coast.

First Locally Owned Aircraft Delivered to Timor-Leste

DHC-6-400 MSN 906 C-GVTU arrived at the Presidente Nicolau Lobato airport in Dili on 28-Oct-2015 on delivery to the Authority of the Special Administrative Region of Social Market Economy Zone (ZEESM).

The aircraft will initially fly to and from the enclave of Oé-Cusse, the island of Atauro, and other locations in the region.

C-GVTU was delivered by Calgary-based Worldwide Ferry, with five stops made between Calgary and Dilli over the period of one week.

Bald Mountain's N716JP positioned up to the North Slope on 26-Oct-2015 and is seen below in the ConocoPhillips hangar at Alpine. The aircraft appears to be operating a ConocoPhillips schedule beginning today, while their own N842AR has been in Anchorage (see photo in blog entry for 22-Oct-2015)

613 - DHC-6-300 CC-ACH Transportes San Francisco S.A., Santiago

CC-ACH has arrived in Calgary, AB on delivery to Kenn Borek Air. It joins the other former Barrick Sudamerica DHC-6 MSN 793 which was delivered to Kenn Borek on 20-Sep-2015.

Left runway onto soft ground following failure of left main tire, while landing at Mukah, Malaysia. This is the second recent runway excursion at Mukah, on 26-Aug-2015 MASWings DHC-6-400 9M-SSB departed the paved surface in rainy/windy conditions (see blog entry for 26-Aug-2015).

This is also the second incident to occur with 9M-SSD, on 09-Jul-2015 it was hit by a Challenger 601-3R while parked at Mukah.

Sunday, 25 October 2015

MSN 454 C-GUZP is seen below upon return from painting in Arkansas, featuring the basic scheme of PT Spirit Avia Sentosa. The company is headquartered in Jakarta, however the aircraft will operate in Papua.

MSN 930 is seen below at Victoria, having arrived from the paint shop the night before. The aircraft has received the same paint scheme as MSN 929, however without the tail logo, Chinese characters on the wing, and the Series 400 nacelle logos.

Thursday, 22 October 2015

The ConocoPhillips DHC-6-300 N842AR (MSN 842) is seen below taxiing at Anchorage yesterday, with Mount Susitna as a backdrop. This is one of the very last original Twin Otters off the production line, and normally flies between Deadhorse and Ugnu-Kuparuk on Alaska's North Slope.

C-GVTU is set to depart Calgary this afternoon on its delivery flight to Timor-Leste (East Timor) with the first stop in Spokane, WA and continuing on to North Bend, OR. The aircraft can been seen in the photo below, while parked at the Regent Aircraft facilities in Calgary.

Rolled to the right on short final, struck the wingtip and landed hard on the right float while on local flight from Nadi.

During the subsequent go around, evidence of damage to the starboard aileron and wingtip was detected, and the aircraft was flown back to Nadi for a safe landing on wheels. The aircraft remains grounded for inspection and repair.

Friday, 16 October 2015

Today C-GFAP has departed Victoria for Spokane; this aircraft was one of very few that have been delivered to Victoria direct from Calgary in primer finish. It is expected that it will return to Victoria painted for AeroGeo of Russia.

Thursday, 15 October 2015

As it has been suggested many times, particularly in the past several months, I have created a page specifically for free single classified advertisements. These are primarily for the "one-off" type specific situations when someone is looking to purchase or sell something Twin Otter related, or is searching for potential employees, or new employment opportunities. All you need to do it click on the banner on the classified page to send details to the Editor, and your advertisement can be up and running the same day.

There is no other venue that brings more Twin Otter related people and businesses together than here, so your classified advertising can and will reach the right prospective customers and companies.

I also strongly encourage your support of the banner advertisers found on the TwinOtterSpotter pages. These are the top suppliers and service providers in the world of Twin Otters, and this site exists, and continues to grow as a result of their ongoing support.

Updating the blog entry for 02-Oct-2015; search teams located the aircraft wreckage 05-Oct-2015 on the slope of Mount Latimojong, at an elevation of approximately 7,000 feet. There were no survivors. The recovered bodies of passengers and crew were handed over to family on 07-Oct-2015 and 08-Oct-2015 respectively.

Indonesian press reports of 08-Oct-2015 indicate the aircraft was off course by approximately 15 nm taking it over an area of Mount Latimojong which would require a minimum safe altitude of 10,000+ feet.

In other events, the Indonesian Transport Ministry has suspended Aviastar Mandiri's scheduled operations certificate, as they do not meet the "minimum number of aircraft operated" requirement. Indonesia, like some other developing countries, requires scheduled air carriers to possess a minimum number of aircraft in order to be certified. This suspension is not related to the most recent Twin Otter accident, and was likely only determined by the Indonesian regulator as a result of the Aviastar operation being under additional scrutiny.

Aviastar Mandiri may continue non-scheduled operations (only) with aircraft having a seating capacity of less than 30 passengers.

While the search continues for Aviastar Mandiri's DHC-6-300 PK-BRM the Jakarta Post is reporting that the Indonesian Transport Minister has grounded the country's DHC-6-300 fleet for the next week.

"We prohibit all DHC-6-300 Twin Otter planes from flying in the coming week. We will carry out a comprehensive assessment on all the planes as instructed by Transportation Minister Ignasius Jonan" said Air Transportation Director General Suprasetyo.

He said also that the Ministry would check all planes owned by Aviastar, and if investigators found any negligence in its safety standards, the Ministry would impose sanctions against the airline.

Damaged in a landing accident at the company facility near the Dubai Marina. The incident is being described by the Dubai Media Office as the aircraft having "deviated off course, resulting in a minor accident" however the picture would seem to indicate otherwise.

The next aircraft for Air Seychelles is scheduled to leave Calgary shortly, for its first stop at Thompson, MB. The delivery is being undertaken by Worldwide Ferry of Calgary, and the aircraft is seen below prior to departure.

Seen in the first photo below are both of the PGR-Procuraduria General de la Republica DHC-6-300's in open storage on the PGR ramp at Mexico City in Jul-2015. The rear aircraft has since become C-FMQX, which is seen in the next photo.

Seen below is DHC-6-300 MSN 687, the former XC-DIO as it is being prepared for departure from Mexico. This aircraft is currently en route, having passed through Brownsville, TX yesterday and is expected to reach Calgary (Springbank) later today.

On the heels of the Solomons DHC-6-300 H4-SID, Air Calin's F-OCQZ "Ville de Paris" has now also arrived in Cairns for attention at Hawker Pacific. The aircraft flew Noumea - Santos - Honiara - Buka - Port Moresby - Cairns and is seen below on approach to Cairns by Paul Howard.

If there is any consistent indication that autumn has arrived, it is the beginning of the Borek Twin Otter migration to the southern hemisphere. C-GKBG departed Calgary this morning bound for Antarctica.

926 - DHC-6-400 C-GUVT Viking Air Ltd., Sidney, BC

Canadian registration cancelled 01-Oct-2015 to Nepal, and noted at Kathmandu 01-Oct-2015 now as 9N-AHH, as can be seen in the photo below.

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